The Underground Railroad

Harriet Tubman was a woman who escaped from slavery in the south. She was born into slavery in Maryland in 1820. She risked her life to save her family and other slave. Harriet led hundreds to safety. “The underground railroad was the way that the slaves escaped. It was a secret network of safe houses organized for that purpose.

The Underground Railroad was one of the most remarkable protests against slavery in United States history. It was a fight for personal survival, which many slaves lost in trying to attain their freedom. Slaves fought for their own existence in trying to keep with the traditions of their homeland, their homes in which they were so brutally taken away from. In all of this turmoil however they managed to preserve the customs and traditions of their native land. These slaves fought for their existence and for their cultural heritage with the help of many people and places along the path we now call the Underground Railroad.

Since the beginning of recorded history, mankind has been caught in the middle of being

Harriet Tubman is considered a hero when she helped free slaves. She led them through the Underground Railroad since she knew the all the routes well. The Underground Railroad was a transport that would help slaves escape to freedom and it was certainly secretive. Each stop would go to a safe-house (Math.buffalo.edu). Harriet Tubman

The Underground Railroad was a path to safety and freedom for thousands of slaves before the Civil War. Escaping from the chains, confinement and abuse of slavery was no easy task and it took the cooperation of many people

The Underground Railroad was a passage to freedom for the slaves which made the slave-owners exasperate. The slaves had to risk their lives while travelling to the northern states but it was worth it as the result of such hard work was freedom. The underground railroad, a secret network running from the Deep South through the free states and to the Canadian border that helped slaves escape from the slave-holding states before the Civil War, allowed abolitionists and their allies to help runaway slaves, made "conductors" like Harriet Tubman famous, and reached its height after the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

The Underground Railroad was an intricate system of households and farmhouses alike that were all connected throughout many towns and villages in the mid 1800s. It was formed by the common goal of people taking a stand against the law and helping thousands of black slaves escape from the south to gain their rightful freedom in the north. This happened because many people began to see slaves as human beings with value, rather than brutes that were valued less than a human. Throughout the mid 1800s, there were many cases of runaway slaves attempting to escape to freedom without anywhere to hide or anyone to help. A lot of people realized that this was a very impactful movement so they began to open up their minds and homes to these fugitive slaves as an attempt to help them make it into the north. Many people helped these runaway slaves because they believed it was morally right, that black oppression was a crime; slaves held value and deserved to keep their family together and lead a life as any other man or woman would, and former slaves shed light on these critical issues.

A strong and powerful lady said these wise words: “There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me”. The brave women who said these words were Harriet Tubman and she was one of the leaders of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves reach freedom. “Although not an actual railroad of steel rails, locomotives and steam engines, the Underground Railroad was real nevertheless” (encyclopedia The Civil War and African Americans 329) The term “Underground Railroad” referred to the

According to Colson Whitehead in “The Underground Railroad,” it states,”Not content to wait for laws to change or for slavery to implode itself, railroad activities helped individual fugitive slaves find the light of freedom. Harriet Tubman is sometimes referred to as the God, or savior, of her people because of the way she led them out of slavery. The Underground Railroad operated at night. ”The success of the Underground Railroad rested on the cooperation of former runaway slaves, free-torn blacks, Native Americans, and white and black abolitionist who helped guide runaway slaves along the routes and provided their homes as safe

The underground railroad is a secret network for helping slaves escape from the South to the North and to Canada in the years before the Civil War ("Oxford Dictionaries | The World's Most Trusted Dictionary Provider"). It is called this because although the Underground Railroad was neither underground, or a railroad, the system worked in a similar fashion to a railroad("Fast Facts - The Underground Railroad"). The passengers followed a route; there were many stops; a conductor led the way, which explains the “railroad” part("Fast Facts - The Underground Railroad"). It was underground because it had to be a secretive operation in order to succeed, and the runaway slaves often had to hide to stay safe("Fast Facts - The Underground Railroad").

The Underground Railroad is viewed as simply a series of trails that led slave to freedom. It was more than that. What were the motivations behind the creation of it? Were there political involvements? Was it developed with financial gain in mind? The Underground Railroad is another one of those subjects that gets swept under the proverbial carpet. Slavery happened everywhere, whether people want to admit it or not. The Underground Railroad was a positive and a negative thing. Most people don’t comprehend what it fully entailed or the impact that it had on all people. It is important to review the past, so we can make an attempt to not make the same mistakes. The above questions will be answered in a well rounded account of all parties involved from the abolitionists to the slaves and those who were supporters.

     The Underground Railroad, the pathway to freedom which led a numerous amount of African Americans to escape beginning as early as the 1700‘s, it still remains a mystery to many as to exactly when it started and why. (Carrasco). The Underground Railroad is known by many as one of the earliest parts of the antislavery movement. Although the system was neither underground nor a railroad, it was a huge success that will never be forgotten.

Between 1830 and circa 1865, slaves tried to escape to the north and Canada by using the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad operated at night and slaves were either moved from station to station by abolitionists or crept northward on their own, looking for a signal that designated the next safe haven. “Stations” consisted mostly of homes and churches that provided slaves a place to stay and eat for a short amount of time. Occasionally, to keep from getting caught, some white abolitionists would pretend to be a fugitive slave’s master. Sometimes lighter-skinned African-Americans could also take this role. Over three thousand two hundred people worked on the railroad and many of those brave individuals will remain anonymous. Several

The Underground Railroad was what many slaves used to escape slavery. It was not an actual railroad, although it could easily be compared to one. It was a route, with safe houses and many other hiding spots for the slaves to use. The paths had conductors telling you where to go and people who would drive you to the next safe house. You had to be quick, you had to be strong, and you had to be very courageous. The Underground Railroad led all the way to Canada. There were many people helping the slaves, and even more people that were opposing them. It was no easy task. Many slaves died of sickness or natural causes, gave up and returned back to the plantation, or were caught and either killed or brought back. It was a rough journey but a

Slavery has always been an anomaly, although abolitionists such as Harriet Tubman did much to ameliorate, and later, abolish slavery. Harriet was a strong and courageous woman and a well-known conductor of the Underground Railroads, around the 1850s. Harriet Tubman personal experiences throughout her life have shaped her to become the stout-hearted woman who helped many slaves escape to freedom, by using the Underground Railroad—a network of secret routes.